Monday, August 08, 2005

GUITAR PERFORMANCE - Make The Most of It!

By: Kathy Unruh

Getting ready for any type of guitar performance can be a littlescary at first, but if you are well prepared, you will find theexperience much easier to handle. Whether you're playing with aband, or by yourself; are a seasoned performer, or a rookie;there are several things you can do to make the most of yourperformance. First and foremost, realize that you are not thefirst one on the block to ever feel jittery about playing yourguitar in public. It's a common experience among musicians, andbeing a little nervous can even work in your favor.

There is always a mysterious struggle that goes on inside mewhen I'm about to give a performance. I think it's somethingakin to the Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde phenomenon. Two voicesbantering for my attention, the good guy and the bad guy. Mr.Hyde tells me that I must be out of my mind. What makes me thinkI'm good enough to get up on a stage and play my guitar beforean audience? Who do I think I am anyway? On the other hand, Dr.Jekyl tells me that I've worked hard practicing my guitar andknow the material well. It will be fun to share what I've gotwith others so they can enjoy hearing it too. Be brave, livelife to the fullest and go for it!

Because I am basically a shy person, it would be much easier forme not to play my guitar in public. But there is acertain drive, almost a need I have, to express myself throughmusic; especially with regard to playing my own material. Yes,there is a certain risk involved; it's called being vulnerable.Anything could happen... A string could break (been there), youmight forget the words or chords to the song (been there), youmight make a mistake and have to start over (been there too).But no matter what happens, the world will go on and you willdiscover that people are very supportive and encouragingoverall. I'm always amazed when I get positive feedback over aperformance that I thought was absolutely awful. It provides mewith more incentive to continue on.

So how can you make the most of your guitar performance? BelowI've put together several suggestions for you to consider. Theyare in no particular order of importance. Some may be relevantto you at certain times and irrelevant at others. Just take whatyou need and ignore the rest.

2. Make sure you select songs with different tempos and rhythmsfor your performance in order to create and sustain interestfrom your audience.

3. Pick songs with varying degrees of difficulty, but don'toverestimate yourself. Be realistic about your own ability. Youwant to pick songs that you enjoy and are able to play well onyour guitar when no one is watching. If you find that you areconstantly making mistakes in a particular song, give yourselfmore time to get it down before actually performing it inpublic.

4. Practice playing with distractions. You will be amazed at howbeneficial this can be. I remember playing at an outdoor concertonce where the band that was to follow mine was warming up rightbehind us! Tamborines and all. One of the bandmembers actuallystarted asking me questions about my guitar performance andwanted to know how I learned to play like that! It was veryweird, but all I could do was ignore her. After that experienceand a few others like it, I began practicing my repertoire withthe T.V. and radio turned up pretty loud to mimic suchdistractions.

5. Start your performance off with something that you find easyto play on the guitar and graduate to the more difficult pieceslater. This will help you to warm up your fingers and getcomfortable with being on stage. I usually like to start with astrong, upbeat song in order to gain the attention of theaudience and rid my stomach of butterflys.

6. Get a good night's sleep the night before your performance ifat all possible. That will help keep you fresh and alert andalso reduce your level of anxiety.

10. Relax, take a deep breath and try to enjoy yourself. Afterall, it's just another part of the learning process andtomorrow's a brand new day!

About the author:

Kathy Unruh is a singer/songwriter and webmaster of ABCLearn Guitar. She has been writing songs and providingguitar lessons to students of all ages for over 20 years. Forfree guitar lessons, plus tips and resources on songwriting,recording and creating a music career, please visit:http://www.abclearnguitar.com